Cullowhee, N.C. - With a practice round scheduled for Wednesday, Western Carolina junior J.T. Poston opens play in the 2014 NCAA Men's Golf Raleigh Regional on Thursday morning at the par-71, 7,213-yard Lonnie Poole Golf Course. Ranked sixth in the latest Golfstat Cup standings, Poston is the top-ranked individual in the Raleigh regional.

Poston and four other individual competitors will tee off at 9:10 am on Wednesday in the practice round in the next-to-last pairing of the tune-up day. Paired with Matthew McKnight from regional team qualifier Bethune-Cookman and individual competitor Evan Russell from Hartford, WCU's Poston opens his quest for a regional championship at 9:40 am on the front nine Thursday morning.

To advance to the NCAA Men's Golf Championship in Kansas, Poston must be the top individual not on one of the top five teams at the regional. Live scoring of Thursday's first round can be found online at GolfStatResults.com.

Entering the NCAA post-season, Poston, the 2014 SoCon Player of the Year and All-SoCon selection, has put together one of - if not the - greatest individual season in Western Carolina men's golf history. His seasonal scoring average through the conference championship event is 69.97 - nearly two full strokes ahead of the previous school benchmark. A combined 25 of his 30 seasonal rounds have been shot at even-par or better including 16 rounds in the 60s. He has won four tournament individual titles this year including most-recently the Southern Conference Men's Golf Championship, which earned his automatic berth into the field as an individual.

Poston enters the 2014 post-season ranked atop WCU's individual career scoring charts with a stroke average of 71.93 through 94 career rounds, by-passing another Catamount great, Matt Cook (72.11 in 107 career rounds).

"J.T. comes into the regional this year with one thing on his mind - winning," said first-year head coach Bryant Odom from Pinehurst, N.C., where Poston played in a United States Open qualifier on Monday, missing the cut by a stroke. "Raleigh is the site we expected and the one he wanted the most. He knows the Lonnie Poole course very well, and has played it several times with success in tournament conditions. J.T. understands that the only way to guarantee he advances to Kansas for the NCAA final is to win."

He added, "As good as his year has been, he is completely focused on finishing what he started out for - a chance for an NCAA Championship. It is going to be a fun week."

Poston has played the Lonnie Poole Golf Course three times as a collegian at the annual Wolfpack Intercollegiate, enjoying a trio of top six finishes in each of the first three trips with his worst finish as a freshman, a sixth-place tie (71.67). He finished fourth (208) this past fall with all three rounds at-or-below par with a 69.33 average (69-67-72). The third-year starter recorded his best finish in the 2012 Wolfpack Invitational event, shooting 214 over the three-day event, an average of 71.33 per round.

All told, Poston holds a scoring average of 70.78 in nine tournament rounds at the Lonnie Poole Golf Course. Five of his nine career rounds have been shot below the par-71 threshold.